Collaborate
by Arctimon
Summary: In the quest to get a new school project underway, Hiro turns to something from the past to get some inspiration. He'll need all the help he can get...even from a fellow teen genius. Hiro/Karmi.


_Yeah, that whole part about not doing any more Hiro/Karmi stuff for now? I...might have not told the entirety of the truth._

_**Disclaimer: **I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I Am. I do not own Big Hero 6. Don't say that, or eat a bag of-_

_**Disclaimer #2: **At the request of several people, I have made a "Table of Contents" for my BH6 stories, so any new readers out there that would like a preferred order to read them, go to my Profile page._

_Oh, and excuse the joke above. It's late. Or early. I can't tell._

* * *

_**Collaborate**_

"Baymax, increase output of devices A-1 and A-2 by twenty percent."

"_Increasing."_

Hiro felt the familiar rush of strength course through his arms. He glanced down at the weights below him, trying to decide which one would yield the best results.

A long time ago, back when Obake was doing his terrorizing and Globby had thrown him into an emotional (and literal) loop, he had felt like a non-contributor to the team. Therefore, he had made himself a piece of nanotechnology-enhanced smart fabric, then dubbed the Nano-Dex. The smart fabric was made to naturally increase the muscle movement of whoever wore it. It was meant to help the team.

What it _actually_ did was cause many more headaches than he had anticipated. What he hadn't taken into account was the tech conforming a little _too_ well to his musculature, to the point where the fabric had become attached to his body. Only through overtaxing it was he able to completely shut it down.

Of course, he had to deal with a giant, three-eyed mechanical lizard...thing...when it deactivated, but thanks to some quick thinking, he was able to save the day once again.

Since then, the Nano-Dex had been sitting in his lab collecting dust. He had come across it again during the clean-up of Obake's ransacking, and tucked it away for safekeeping. Now that he needed a new project, it only seemed fitting that he try it out again.

But _this_ time, it would need a little more...finesse.

Hiro grabbed the fifty pound weight and brought it over his head. Instead of one piece of clothing, he had decided to spring for multiple: two arm sleeves, a sleeveless shirt, and a pair of pants. The latter two were deactivated but still on his body, his shorts the only other clothing he had on.

Satisfied after a few reps, he set the weight down. "Baymax, reset A-1 and A-2 to zero."

That was the other thing he had changed: Baymax was now the main party responsible for remotely changing the output. Instead of going from zero to one hundred, he could change the levels without tiring himself out.

But some problems still persisted...

Hiro laid back on the bench, several already used weights strewn around him. The constant changing of levels was putting strain on his muscles, which was the exact problem he was _suppose _to be solving. Maybe the circuitry was off...

"_Are we continuing?_"

He turned to the right to see Baymax hovering above him. "In a minute. But we're almost done anyway. Can you go grab me some water from Aunt Cass?"

"_I will return with more refreshment momentarily._"

As Baymax walked off, he took a moment to glance at his vitals on the laptop. Yup, his pulse was a little high, but nothing too terrible. Too bad it couldn't numerically categorize pain like Baymax could...

"Man, the things I do on the weekend..."

It was true that he could've easily done this during the week, but he wanted to at least work on some stuff at home, and with him and the group going back on patrol most nights, the weekend was the best time for him. It also gave him an excuse to not go to the lab and avoid...certain people.

Hiro let out a large sigh through his nose. He had not talked to Karmi at all since last Friday, when they had their rooftop evening conversation. A lot of emotions were laid out up there, and it was something that he wasn't going to easily forget. But...they hadn't talked to each other all week. Maybe things were more awkward than he had thought. Maybe he had said something wrong.

Come to think of it, the only time he _had _seen her was in the Periodic Cafe on Wednesday. She was deep in thought looking at her computer, and it didn't look like she wanted to be disturbed.

He also remembered Go Go grinning over her salad during that lunch time. Whatever_ that_ meant...it couldn't be anything good.

His phone began to vibrate in his pocket. Hiro pulled it out and answered it without looking. It was probably one of the gang seeing whether he was alive.

"Hello?"

"_Hey."_

...Or not. "Hey."

"_Did I catch you at a bad time? You're breathing heavy again."_

"I'm...working."

"_Out?"_ He heard a bunch of noises in the background, as if she was in some sort of store. _"I sincerely doubt it."  
_

"No, I'm actually doing it this time."

"_So what you were doing when I called before?"_

"...Jumping down a flight of stairs to get to the phone."

"_You can't see it, but I'm rolling my eyes at you."_

Hiro had to stop himself from doing the exact same thing. "So, what are you up to?"

"_Hold on a sec."_

He heard her have a muffled conversation with someone, followed by the ding of a bell. She was probably leaving whatever establishment she was in. Probably best just to wait until-

"_Why have you been ignoring me?"_

Straight to the point, as always. "I'm not? I wasn't aware that I was."

"_You've been avoiding me since...you know. It's totally obvious."_

OK, now he was confused. "I was under the impression that we weren't going to talk about that."

"_...We haven't talked to each other since then. How are we not suppose to talk about it when we haven't talked about not talking about it?"_

"I...what?" Hiro said. "Now you're just purposefully being obtuse."

Not hearing a response, he relaxed, the pain in his arms subsiding. "I'm presuming you're on your way home now?"

"...Not quite."

Wait a minute. That didn't come from the phone.

Hiro craned his neck up off of the bench to see Karmi in the doorway of the garage, her phone up to her ear and her eyebrow disappearing into her bangs. Silently, she hung up the call and pointed at him with her other hand, currently holding a to-go cup from inside.

"Do you...do you wake up in the morning and think of ways to make situations awkward?"

Hiro didn't answer, straightening up to a sitting position. "What are you doing here?"

"Avoiding the question. That's cool." Karmi began to tiptoe around the debris of weights, her phone now tucked away in her purse. "I was in the neighborhood and needed something to tide me over. And then I remembered you own a cafe."

"Well, I don't. Aunt Cass does."

"Whomever."

"_Who_ever."

"Wow." She pulled out a small bag from her purse. "You really don't want this raspberry scone she told me to give you, do you?"

In a blink of an eye, the bag was out of her hand, and half of the pastry was already in his mouth.

Karmi sighed, pulling a second one out. "You're lucky she gave me another one, you pig."

"Ohm not uh pug."

"I'm going to pretend that was English." She took a seat next to him on the bench, taking a small bite out of the scone. "So, you want to tell me why you're dressed up in a motion capture suit in a garage full of metal plates?"

Hiro hit his chest to dislodge the remains of his food. "I'm trying to come up with another project to work on at school."

"Didn't you had something before? Something you took to the open house? What happened to it?"

"It...blew up." That wasn't _technically _a lie, but what followed definitely was. "Luckily, Granville had already graded it, but she wants me to come up with an alternate."

"And dressing up like a rebooted cartoon alien is what you came up with?"

"_It is smart fabric, infused with Hiro's nanotechnology."_

"Finally," Hiro sighed as he turned to his returning robot, a full water bottle in his hand. "Took you long enough."

"_I was busy talking to a young child outside the front door, who was selling what appeared to be boxes of confections in green packaging-"  
_

"Wait, hold on. Back up." Karmi took a closer look at Hiro's shirt, glowing slightly from the overhead light bulb. "There's nanostuff in there? What's it suppose to do?"

"I'll show you." Hiro got up from the bench and walked over to his Aunt's parked truck, cracking his knuckles. "Baymax, increase the full set to seventy-five percent."

"_Increase complete."_

Karmi had watched him walk off, worried about what he was going to do. "What are you-"

And then she saw him bend down, putting his hand under the bumper.

"Hold up, are you going to-"

Hiro then did exactly what she thought he was going to do: lift the front end of the car above his head. After about ten seconds, he set it back down, the hunk of metal creaking back into position.

He turned back toward her to see her mouth hanging wide open. Smirking, he walked back over to her. "It's also pretty good for tearing down random tables and opening stubborn bottles of ketchup. At a lower level, of course."

Hiro hadn't even meant to joke about that, but Karmi snapped her mouth shut, the sudden realization crawling over her face. "Wait a minute..._that's_ why all of that stuff happened? Because of your getup?"

"You didn't seriously think I could do all of that stuff on my own, did you?"

"I...don't know. I just thought you had it out for me."

"Here, I want to try something else. And it's actually good that you're here for this."

Karmi squinted in his direction. "I don't like the way this is going."

Hiro ignored her again as his brain started to kick into overdrive. "How much do you weigh, Karmi?"

"That's rude, Genius Boy! You're not suppose to ask a lady her weight!"

"_She weighs approximately 110 pounds, putting her in the underweight category for someone of her age, weight, and BMI."_

"Hey!"

"Good, good," Hiro said, not paying attention. "Put your feet up on the bench."

"No."

"Fine, be like that. I can get you all of the free tea in the world, but if that's what you want..."

Karmi looked at the closed door leading to the inside. "Your aunt already does that-"

The distraction worked. She found herself being lifted off of the bench by Hiro effortlessly, the purple lines on his clothing glowing brighter. "Hey! Again!"

"Karmi, calm down. I got you."

He stepped out into the alley, carrying her out bridal style. "See. We're not doing anything nefarious. I'm just testing different parameters involving a various amount of densities and loads."

"Just keep your hands where I can see them, buster."

"You don't trust me?"

Not hearing a response, Hiro glanced down. Karmi was staring back at him, her hands in her lap and a knowing look in her eyes. "I take it you don't."

"Oh, I trust you..." Karmi said. "Just about as far as you can throw me."

She felt Hiro bent his knees slightly, his gaze now going upward into the sky. "Sooo...about thirty feet, then?"

"Wait, what?"

Without any warning, Hiro threw her up into the air. He watched as the girl's scream got quieter as she went higher, her silhouette temporarily blocking out the moon.

"_Hiro, I have finished compiling the data from earlier,"_ Baymax appeared behind him. _"What do you wish for me to do next?"_

"Be prepared for an angry girl."

Baymax followed his gaze upward. _"...Oh."_

"Increase everything to full capacity, Baymax." Hiro widened his stance as he prepared for the reentry of his classmate. "And you might want to step back."

The robot shuffled his feet backwards, taking cover back in the garage. Hiro held his arms out...and in came Karmi.

WOMP!

The two teen geniuses came back together, Karmi's hair now a disheveled mess. Her bangs were covering her eyes, which was probably for the best, because they were probably hiding the devil's glare.

"Are you out of your _freaking mind?_" She punched Hiro hard in the chest. "I could've died!"

"But you didn't. That's the important part."

"That was, like, twenty feet in the air!"

"_It was 27.8 feet."  
_

Karmi whipped her head at Baymax, smacking Hiro with her ponytail in the process. "Not helping!"

"We didn't get to thirty. That's a shame." He bent his knees again. "We should go for more this time."

"No!" Karmi turned back toward him, throwing her arms around his neck. "Don't do it again, or I'm taking your head with me."

"I caught you before. I'll catch you again."

"Oh good." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm in his ear. "My hero."

"No, _I'm_ Hiro."

A few seconds went by. Through her position, he could feel her heart beating through her sweater. It wasn't that surprising; she _had_ just been thrown in the air by him. He wouldn't be performing his due diligence if he didn't at least check. "You OK, Karmi?"

She brought her face in front of his. Her face was flushed (probably because of the air), and her eyes were narrowed, but not enough to hide the twinkle in them. She brushed back her bangs to her normal position, then returned it to hold onto Hiro's neck. "Considering what just happened...I've been worse."

"I _did_ catch you, you know."

"You said that already."

Another moment passed. And then Hiro noticed just how close their faces were to each other. And her stare. And her fingers absentmindedly grazing the back of his neck.

...OK, he was starting to notice a lot of things.

"I guess I should give you some sort of reward now."

Uh oh. "Does...does it involve you slapping me in the face?" Hiro asked.

Karmi's face got a little closer. "I'm sure we'll get to that in a bit."

Just then, a sharp pain ran through the entirely of Hiro's body. The spasm almost caused him to drop Karmi, but she managed to get her feet back underneath her.

"What's going on?" Karmi said.

"I'm..fine. I just need...a minute." Hiro waved over to his robot. "Baymax, deactivate the Nano-Dex. And get me my water bottle."

He hobbled back over to the bench and sat down, grabbing the water out of Baymax's outstretched hand. He took a swig and splashed some into his face, shaking off the excess. "I just remembered I didn't reset it between experiments. We probably shorted out something in the circuits. Remind me to get that fixed."

"...Are you OK?"

In all of the pain, he had completely forgotten that Karmi was there. She was now by his side, worriedly looking at him. He tried to put on a smile. "I'm fine. Just a malfunction."

"Are you in pain?"

"I don't feel pleasant...if that's what you're asking."

"_On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"_

"Guys, I'll be fine." He pulled both sleeves off and set them down next to him. "We're done for the day. All I need is some aspirin and some rest."

Karmi and Baymax looked at each other. They both had reservations about his well-being (one of them being pre-programmed), and it didn't look like he was getting any better.

"Take off your shirt."

Hiro didn't even have the energy to look up at her. "What?"

"I'm going to help you. Take off your shirt."

"At least buy me dinner first."

The joke apparently didn't land, because Karmi's hand came back and grasped the back of his collar. "Here, I'll help. Put your hands up."

Not having much of a choice, Hiro put his arms vertical, letting her peel off the chest part of the Nano-Dex. Now that his bare skin was exposed, the chill started to set in from all of the sweat. He would have to make sure to iron that issue out.

He felt something thin and round land on his shoulder blade, followed by the feeling of cool relief down his back. His breathing began to steady out, and the pain started to subside.

"I didn't know you had improved the nanoreceptors."

Karmi frowned, two of her fingers still applying pressure to the device. "You're lucky I did; otherwise, you'd be unconscious. Do you need another one?"

"No, I think that's good." He craned his head back toward her. "Thanks."

"Consider that your reward." Karmi zipped up her purse. "Oh, and you owe me for a new one."

"Put it on my tab."

"The restaurant doesn't have a tab. I can make one, though. You'll have to work it off in the kitchen."

Hiro took his spare shirt out of Baymax's hand and threw it over his head. "How long will this last for?"

"About an hour. You probably going to want to sleep for the rest of the night, because they don't exactly solve any lingering medical problems. Your muscles are going to be sore." Karmi shook her head. "Too bad having super strength isn't a good school project. You could come up with something a little...less..."

She stopped as Hiro's face contorted into a look of realization. "What are you thinking, Genius Boy?"

"...Get me my dry-erase board."

"Your what?"

He pointed off to his right, where she noticed the white wheeled board next to the wall. Karmi grabbed it and brought it out to him. "Are you getting an idea?"

"Something like that." He grabbed the marker off of the stand and started furiously writing several diagrams and equations on it. His arm went back and forth in a spectacular fashion, something that Karmi found strangely interesting.

"Is he always like this?" Karmi leaned toward Baymax.

"_It is optimal to allow Hiro time to bring his ideas out of his mind and onto whatever physical surface he has available."_

After a few minutes, Hiro stepped back to admire his work. Karmi took a glance over it.

"I don't understand a single thing of this."

He set the marker down. "It's robotics; I wouldn't expect you to." He pointed off to a diagram of a human body, arrows pointing at several joints. "I'm thinking that I can use this as a supplement."

"For?"

"People."

"...Explain, Genius Boy."

"Let's look at it this way." Hiro stepped back to join Karmi. "When does anyone every need super-strength? It's not exactly a viable thing, right? But what if it worked in levels?" He started putting his hands one on top of the other. "Kind of like your nanoreceptors. You have levels, right? Some are for more severe cases than others, right?"

"Right," Karmi affirmed.

"I can use that for the Nano-Dex. Separate styles and levels for varying cases."

"That could work." Karmi crossed her arms around her body. "But don't they have something like that already?"

"Sort of. But this would be more mobile, and probably more versatile. And there's all of this as well." He flipped the board, revealing an entirely full other side.

"Wait, when did you-"

"And it could be used for so much more. The nanotechnology could be used for insertion and extraction of chemicals, therapy, diagnosing...Imagine, Karmi. You'd never have to worry about needles ever again. No cross contamination, no breaking...it would all be done at the nano-level."

"Yeah, but you're going to need a narrower focus. You can't just say it's going to be the solution for everything."

"Why not?"

Karmi sighed. "Because...unfortunately, that's now how science works."

"OK, how about this?" Hiro said. "What about the elderly? It can be used for iron deficiency. We can line the fabric with it, allowing the nanotech to bring it into the person's system."

"Bringing foreign entities into a person's system? That's risky."

"Yeah, you're right. Scratch that."

Hiro looked up at his companion. He was surprised to find a look of contemplation on her face. "Are you thinking about something?"

Karmi said nothing, stepping forward and grabbing the marker. She began to make her own equations on the board, erasing a little bit of Hiro's sketches. Confused, Hiro peered over her shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Shh." Her finger went over his mouth, silencing him.

Hiro stayed quiet until she was done. Removing her finger, she stepped back, twirling the marker in her hand. He took a glance over the new entries. "Is...that a bioleaching equation?"

"Yeah."

"...And that's suppose to help?"

"What if we changed the metal into something else before it entered the system? Use the iron in the fabric in conjunction with a fungal strain to produce citric acid for the patient?"

"Scurvy?" Hiro said. "Isn't that rare?"

"Severe cases, yeah. But it's rampant in underdeveloped countries, even on a mild basis. Converting excess iron into something substantial would be great." Karmi tapped the side of her head with the marker, still looking worried. "But that would be so heavy. Natural iron is dense. Putting that on someone would be hazardous."

"...Blood."

"What?"

"Don't use the metal that's in the fabric," Hiro explained. "That would probably interfere with the nanotech, anyway. Use the iron in the blood. Extract it, allow the fungus and metal to mobilize the citric acid, and put it back into the system."

Hiro and Karmi both stared at each other, the realization coming to them.

"Hiro..." she started. "This...this could revolutionize the medical industry. Nanotech-infused fabric, commissioned to solve specific medical problems. Easy transportation, no worrying about care package food going bad, minimal waste..." She waved to the board in front of them. "This could change everything."_  
_

"Yeah, it could," Hiro sighed. "But there's one problem."

"Which is?"

"This is all theoretical. Nothing like this has ever been tested on a scale so big. We know it works on a macro level, but on a micro? That's...a big task."

They stood silently together, brains still going at light speed.

"I mean, at least you have a project now. That's a good thing, right?"

"I guess. I kind of want to go back to throwing things in the air."

Karmi shook her head as she looked at her phone. "It's late; I have to go." She started to make her way out the garage. "Keep me updated on this, OK?"

"Wait."

She stopped mid-stride. "What?"

"What if this wasn't _my_ project?"

"Genius Boy, you're not making any sense."

Hiro glanced over at his robot. "Baymax, scan, download, and save the boards. I think we're going to need them for later." As Baymax's eyes started shining in his blue light, he walked over to his classmate. "What if it wasn't my project? What if it was _ours_?"

"...You're _still _not making any sense."

"I'm saying we should work on it together."

Karmi's eyes widened. Hiro wasn't sure how to take this, so he continued on. "Look, I can do all of the robotic stuff with the fabric and even some of the other technical stuff, but I'm not good when it comes to the biological stuff. That's your expertise, and you're the best biotech student I know."

"I'm the _only_ biotech student you know."

"That's beside the point."

She averted his gaze. "What about Honey Lemon?"

"She's a chemist. She probably won't be able to help that much. Not in the scale that we're thinking of."

Karmi turned her back toward him. "I have so much stuff on my plate right now. I don't know if I have time for this. Plus..." She crossed her arms over her body. "I've...had bad experiences with working with people."

"Let me guess. Getting singled out in groups and having them make you do all the work because you're the smartest."

"Yeah." She hugged herself tighter. "Something like that."

Hiro didn't like the sad tone of her voice. He didn't really know what to say to her. The tone went from triumphant to depressing in a matter of seconds. He gripped his shoulder instinctively...

And his fingers brushed the nanoreceptor still on his body.

"I'm going to tell you something that you've been wanting to hear for a while."

Karmi didn't turn around, although her ears did perk up a little. "What's that?"

"...I can't do this without you."

She _did_ turn around this time, staring at him.

"Here's what we'll do," Hiro started. "I have other projects I can probably do solo, but I think this is too important to pass up. We can work on other stuff, but we work on it for a little each week. We can meet up once every two weeks to compare notes. We'll start with that, and adjust as need be." He stepped up to her and offered his hand. "So, what do you say? Partners?"

Karmi stared for a long time at his hand, clearly still worried about something. Hiro couldn't suss it out.

"I can't promise anything."

"That's fine."

At long last, Karmi took her hand and grasped his, completing the agreement.

"...Partners."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** (For the record, the Ben 10 and Girl Scout reference were _not _in the first draft of this story. Blame my late night brain for that.)

So I was struggling to find something to bridge the gap between what I had written so far to what I have planned. And this seemed like the perfect thing. And yes, it's coming out a little late, but you try to digest the intricacies of bioleaching and nanotechnology and put it in writing. It's hard.

And I'm sure I've gotten some of the science wrong, but hey. It's theoretical. That's the excuse I'm going with.

I've mentioned it before, and I'll say it again: I'm fairly certain that Season 2 (which is rumored to be coming out in May, BTW) is going to mess up what I have written so far. Which is fine. I was expecting it to. Which is also why I wrote everything as "free" as possible from any upcoming shenanigans.

Oh, and some people are probably beginning to theorize about the event that happened in Karmi's past that has been alluded to in multiple fics. Other authors have done stories about it, and it's an interesting concept.

But not to the level that I have it at. And that's all I'll say about it.

I will have a journal going up on DevArt soon with predictions for Season 2, so stay tuned for that.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


End file.
